Space station may become crew-less unless rocket fix found

NASA may be affected to abandon the International Amplitude Base unless its Russian ally can acquisition a quick fix to a botheration with their primary barrage system.

That was the edgeless bulletin Monday from Mike Suffredini, the Houston-based administrator of the large, orbiting laboratory.

“We’re activity to do what’s safest for the aggregation and the amplitude station,” Suffredini said.

The Russians accept formed an analytic aggregation to actuate the account of a rocket botheration that led to the blow of an unmanned Progress amplitude abridged aftermost week.

The Soyuz amplitude capsule, the alone bureau NASA currently has to bear astronauts to the amplitude station, relies on agnate barrage technology.

Suffredini said if the Russian rocket affair isn’t bound by Nov. 16, the amplitude base will accept to be abandoned temporarily.

There’s currently a abounding accompaniment of six astronauts aboard the station, which has two Soyuz capsules already docked there for acknowledgment trips. Three – Expedition 28 administrator Andrey Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyaev and Ron Garan – acceptable will appear home in mid-September in one of those capsules.

A backup aggregation had been appointed to barrage aboard a Soyuz abutting month, but that is now on authority until the analysis into and accretion from the Progress blow is complete.

The amplitude base can accomplish commonly with aloof three aggregation members, but their aliment assignment leaves little time for accurate research.

The actual three astronauts aboard the base – Expedition 29 administrator Mike Fossum, Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa – will accept to appear home in mid-November because their Soyuz abridged is rated to break on apogee for alone six months and will be abreast the end of that time frame.

Mid-November target

That bureau if a backup aggregation is to access afore Fossum and his colleagues depart, the Russians accept to identify, apparatus and analysis a fix to the barrage arrangement afore mid-November.

“I anticipate the abstruse band-aid to this apparently will be axiomatic appealing quickly, again abandoned to a component, and abandoned to a assembly batch,” Oberg said.

Under this book the revamped barrage arrangement could be approved in a Progress flight in October as able-bodied as three planned launches of bartering Soyuz aircraft accustomed burden rather than passengers. If these launches go well, NASA apparently will columnist advanced with a November aggregation launch.

Workforce challenge

The barrage problem, as able-bodied as issues added Progress capsules accept had aggravating to berth with the amplitude station, highlight a bigger botheration that NASA faces in attention to its Russian partner, Oberg said.

“In the Russian press, dozens of experts point to the contempo failures as a reasonable aftereffect of a astringent workforce claiming that’s been 20 years in the making,” Oberg said.

The workforce that advised and congenital the aboriginal Soyuz and Progress cartage several decades ago has confused on, Oberg said, and the adolescent replacements are low-paid. It’s not hasty that assembly band issues are agriculture up, he said.

The fresh challenges with accepting aggregation to the International Amplitude Station, which has been inhabited for 11 years, appear aloof a ages afterwards NASA retired the amplitude shuttle.

The amplitude bureau is counting on clandestine companies such as SpaceX and Boeing to advance another capsules, but those technologies may not be accessible until 2015 or beyond.

Remote control

If NASA has to abandon the amplitude base it can still accomplish the adeptness accidentally to accumulate it active smoothly, Suffredini said. But there are risks.

“It would be bad because the adventitious for blow of base goes up absolutely a bit back there is no aggregation onboard,” said Leroy Chiao, a above astronaut who allowable ISS Expedition 10 in 2004 and 2005.

The accident comes from abeyant failures with base systems that could account the base to lose attitude control, throwing off the adeptness of Houston and Moscow to accelerate commands to the base antennas.

Under such a book the station’s solar arrays could point abroad from the sun, and it would boring ability bottomward and die, accident distance and entering Earth’s atmosphere.